Friday 28 June 2013

Deploying a WSP to SharePoint 2013

How to deploy a WSP to SharePoint Farm Solution library

This need to be done on the Server which host the SharePoint Central Administration.
  1. Add the WSP to the SharePoint Server
    1. The first thing you need to do is copy over the wsp deployment file. The best things to do is to create a deployment folder, where all the deployed files are kept.
    2. Copy over the deployment files to: c:\Deploy\WSP
  2. Add the WSP to the SharePoint Farm Solution library
    1. Open “SharePoint 2013 Management Shell “ as administrator
      a. Open the Search on Server 2012
      b. Search for “SharePoint 2013 Management Shell”
      c. Right click “SharePoint 2013 Management Shell”
      d. Select “Run as Administrator”
    2. Run this script: 
      Add-SPSolution "c:\Deploy\WSP\{file name}.wsp"  
  3. Deploy the WSP to the SharePoint Farm Solution library
    1. Open Central Administration
    2. Click “System Settings”
       photo Picture1.jpg
    3. Click “Manage farm solutions”, under “Farm Management”
       photo Picture103.jpg
    4. Click on the {file name}.wsp package
    5. Click “Deploy Solution”
       photo Picture106-1.jpg
    6. Deployment settings
      Deploy When: Now
      Deploy to: All content Web application
    7. Click “OK”

How to activate the WSP Feature on the Site Collection

  1. Activate the WSP Feature on the Site Collection
    1. Open the Root Site (the Site Collection)
    2. Click the cog, in the top right corner (Site Actions)
    3. Select “Site Settings”
    4. Click “Site collection features”, under “Site Collection Administrator”
    5. Go to {file name}
    6. Click “Activate”, to the right

Thursday 13 June 2013

How to troubleshoot a SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows

How does it all fit together:

  1. The workflow name
  2. The workflow task list
  3. The workflow "Stage". This is new in SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows
  4. The workflow history log list [site name]/Lists/Workflow%20History

Workflow Status page:

SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflow Error photo SharePointDesigner2013WorkflowError1.jpg

Workflow setting in SharePoint Designer 2013:

SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflow Error photo SharePointDesigner2013WorkflowError3.jpg

Edit Workflow in "Text-Based Designer" in SharePoint Designer:

SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflow Error photo SharePointDesigner2013WorkflowError4.jpg

SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows Permission Error

SharePoint Permission are very important, and permission for SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows are very very important. You can get very strange looking workflow errors if you don’t configure your permission correctly.
SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflow error photo 2.jpg


First thing you need to know:

The initiator of the workflow shouldn't be the System Admin account, because it most likely going to give issues.

Workflow permission:

The user who is initiating the workflow must have access to the all the place the workflow touches.
  • If the workflow creates a task or list item, the initiating user needs to have access to that list.
  • If the workflow has a “Log to History List” action, the initiating user needs to have access to the "Workflow History" list ([site name]/Lists/Workflow%20History)

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Installing .net Framework 3.5 service pack 1 on Windows 8

So today, I had an issue getting into SharePoint Designer 2010 from my newly installed Windows 8. First I did all the windows updates and it still didn’t work. I downloaded the Microsoft file “dotnetfx35”, I tried every version. They all failed.

I finally found this article: http://www.diginks.info/2013/03/install-net-framework-35-in-windows-8.html , method 2

So basically:

  1. You need to insert the Windows 8 installation disk (e.g. disk drive "e”)
  2. Open command prompt as the administrator
    a. Open search
    b. Type “cmd”, on the right
    c. Right click on “Command Prompt” and click “Run as Administrator”, at the bottom
  3. Run this script:
    DISM.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx3 /All /Source:e:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess